A spiral cutting tool is a hand-held power tool having an electric motor that rotates a spiral cutting tool bit at very high speeds. A typical spiral cutting tool includes an electric motor enclosed within a generally cylindrical motor housing. The motor drives a motor shaft which extends from one end of the motor housing along the axis thereof. A mechanical structure, such as a conventional drill-type chuck or a collet-type system, is mounted on the end of the motor shaft outside of the motor housing, for attaching, e.g., a spiral cutting tool bit to the motor shaft. The spiral cutting tool bit is designed for cutting perpendicular to the axis of the bit. A spiral cutting tool is thus used to remove material from a work piece by moving the rotating spiral cutting tool bit through the work piece in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the bit. Thus, a spiral cutting tool is conventionally operated by grasping the motor housing with one or both hands, and/or grasping a handle attached to the motor housing, turning on the electric motor to begin high speed rotation of the spiral cutting tool bit, plunging the spinning cutting tool bit into a work piece, such as a piece of wood, and then moving the cutting bit through the work piece in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the spiral cutting tool bit by moving the motor housing in a direction parallel to the plane of the work piece surface while keeping the axis of the motor housing generally perpendicular to the work piece surface.
The utility of a spiral cutting tool may be enhanced by attaching accessories other than spiral cutting tool bits to the motor shaft extending from the spiral cutting tool housing, to be rotated by the high-speed spiral cutting tool motor within the housing. For example, a cutting wheel or sanding disk might be attached to the spiral cutting tool motor shaft to be driven by the high-speed spiral cutting tool motor. The use of such attachments might expand the utility of the spiral cutting tool to various other cutting and sanding operations. However, the utility of a spiral cutting tool for such operations is limited if the cutting wheel or sanding disk is attached directly to the end of the motor shaft extending from the end of the motor housing. In such a case, the orientation of the cutting wheel or sanding disk with respect to the motor housing prevents effective use of the spiral cutting tool for cutting wheel and sanding operations, due to limited control and visibility.
What is desired, therefore, is an attachment for a spiral cutting tool, or other hand-held power tool, which allows cutting wheels, sanding disks, and similar attachments to be coupled to the spiral cutting tool motor, to be driven thereby, in a useful orientation with respect to the cutting tool motor housing. Such an attachment is preferably removably attachable to the spiral cutting tool, so that the spiral cutting tool or other hand-held power tool may be converted easily for use in wheel cutting or sanding operations, and re-converted back for use with, e.g., spiral cutting tool bits, etc.